# Sacrilege...good fake Esplendidos



## bazookajoe (Nov 2, 2006)

A couple of years ago a friend of mine had some health issues and needed to liquidate his inventory of cigars. Having no outlet to really do that he asked me to help. He had some nice vintage premium NCs and a lot of Cubans, though about a third of the Cubans were fake. I set aside a small humidor with about 50 of his best sticks in case he was ever able to smoke again, and sold the rest (minus the fakes).

I got rid of all the fakes except a box of Cohiba Esplendidos. Because of all the unpleasant things that could be inside I dissected one and was surprised to find it was mostly long filler leaves, bound around each other rather than just bunched, no stems, and just a small amount of short filler in the center. They are triple capped and have good labels with one small giveaway on the C in Cuba. I didn't think my buddies would notice. Their eyes light up when I give them Cohibas and I've enjoyed their approving comments when they smoke them. They aren't even upset when I let them in on the fakeness.

I may not be completely objective since I didn't pay for them, but I actually like these cigars. They are not Cohibas but they definitely taste like Cuban tobacco, burn well and are very consistent. The sacrilege part is that I like them better than some of my real Cubans. I have some great Cohibas, Montes, Upmanns, Bolivars, Punches etc., but I find a lot of Cubans taste very ordinary, one dimensional and lackluster. I may have spoiled my palette with Nicaraguan tobacco but I just haven't found that many Cubans that do anything for me. These though I like, even my neighbors have commented on how good they smell when they walk by.

I don't know where my friend got these or why someone would go to all the trouble to make such a good counterfeit cigar. The glass top cheapie fakers can count on a continual flow of tourists who won't find out they're fake till they get home, but I just find the effort behind good fakes odd. I'm guessing they supply some unscrupulous online retailers and want to continue, but still, they have the classic errors and are easily identified...

I'm interested in your thoughts or experiences with good fakes, if there is such a thing.


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## smelvis (Sep 7, 2009)

Well I haven't had a god one yet, many bad ones LOL I say we like what we like and if I found a source fake or not for something I liked I would be buying it. after all it is all about the enjoyment of it.


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

bazookajoe said:


> A couple of years ago a friend of mine had some health issues and needed to liquidate his inventory of cigars. Having no outlet to really do that he asked me to help. He had some nice vintage premium NCs and a lot of Cubans, though about a third of the Cubans were fake. I set aside a small humidor with about 50 of his best sticks in case he was ever able to smoke again, and sold the rest (minus the fakes).
> 
> I got rid of all the fakes except a box of Cohiba Esplendidos. Because of all the unpleasant things that could be inside I dissected one and was surprised to find it was mostly long filler leaves, bound around each other rather than just bunched, no stems, and just a small amount of short filler in the center. They are triple capped and have good labels with one small giveaway on the C in Cuba. I didn't think my buddies would notice. Their eyes light up when I give them Cohibas and I've enjoyed their approving comments when they smoke them. They aren't even upset when I let them in on the fakeness.
> 
> ...


_And i thought i was the only one . Never has anyone told me what i have just read here. But i personally have experienced it many times. In fact there was ,in fact still is a vendor in Spain that specializes in the cigars you have mentioned. They start by shipping real cigars to gain trust i would imagine. Slowly over time they add the fake box here and there. Eventually all the customer gets is fake cigars. The excuses range from. Its Cuba there is no perfect product. To oh there is such a demand for them the cigars are sometimes shipped green. Let them age a few years i guarantee they will be spectacular. Sad truth is they are fake. Many of them though taste better than many high end non Cuban cigars i have had. The answer to your question i think is. These are high end fakes. Not the cheapo glass top box tourist trap fakes. But rather cigars to the untrained eye and palette. Can and do in many instances pass for the real thing. They sell for many more times their actual investment price. They target a different market than the Jintero's that sell on the streets of Havana. Or any other tourist trap for that matter. I have seen them mostly in the Cohiba Marca as that is the most sought after. I have also seen them in Monticristo the #2 the most prevalent. I have also seen Trinadad Fundadores and other high end Cubans counterfeited in this format._


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## bazookajoe (Nov 2, 2006)

TonyBrooklyn said:


> _And i thought i was the only one . Never has anyone told me what i have just read here. But i personally have experienced it many times. In fact there was ,in fact still is a vendor in Spain that specializes in the cigars you have mentioned. They start by shipping real cigars to gain trust i would imagine. Slowly over time they add the fake box here and there. Eventually all the customer gets is fake cigars. The excuses range from. Its Cuba there is no perfect product. To oh there is such a demand for them the cigars are sometimes shipped green. Let them age a few years i guarantee they will be spectacular. Sad truth is they are fake. Many of them though taste better than many high end non Cuban cigars i have had. The answer to your question i think is. These are high end fakes. Not the cheapo glass top box tourist trap fakes. But rather cigars to the untrained eye and palette. Can and do in many instances pass for the real thing. They sell for many more times their actual investment price. They target a different market than the Jintero's that sell on the streets of Havana. Or any other tourist trap for that matter. I have seen them mostly in the Cohiba Marca as that is the most sought after. I have also seen them in Monticristo the #2 the most prevalent. I have also seen Trinadad Fundadores and other high end Cubans counterfeited in this format._


Thanks Tony, that makes sense. I've been wondering about this for a while, but I've searched through all the years of threads here and just couldn't find any info.

It is sad that they taste good, because as much as I like them I don't like the idea of buying counterfeits. If they came out with their own legitimate line I would buy them, but I guess that market would be to them a fraction of what they can get selling them as Cohibas, so no incentive.


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## asmartbull (Aug 16, 2009)

The Espy is one of my great celebratory cigars,
I have some 06's that are superb...
The thought of smoke a fake make me throw-up a little....


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## bazookajoe (Nov 2, 2006)

asmartbull said:


> The Espy is one of my great celebratory cigars,
> I have some 06's that are superb...
> The thought of smoke a fake make me throw-up a little....


Yeah, I know. There's definitely a strangeness to it. I was hesitant to even bring it up-it's much easier to berate the crappy fakes than these.


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

One thing about a good Cohiba Esplendido is obviously its content and not many are willing to challenge the authenticity by doing surgery on one. I buy mine by the box and will rarely buy singles unless I know the vendor well enough not to have to worry.

For those of us who know these cigars well enough to almost "smell" them out observation by knowing the bands and how authentic they are is where you start. Usually when I get a box from my trusted vendor I still get the heebee jeebees about their authenticiy and will perform surgery on them as well. The leaves should be whole and not "pieces" or torn pieces and they should be soft. As you take each leaf check for the "V" shape in the leaf as the veins should have been carefully removed by the torcedor. 

A fake is going to have what David talked about and even worse...brittle leaves...scrap and different sizes of leaves..stems...scraps and faded. 

Any good cigar regardless of origin should have these same characteristics as I mentioned for a true Cohiba Esplendido. Education sometimes demands us taking apart a cigar for our own good....look at the wrapper...binder...filler and look for quality leaves. 

Even if you find a "fake" if it's made well with good tobacco it has a chance to be something good but you'll need to verify one out of a box by doing an autopsy on it...not every box of course but every once in awhile.


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## bpegler (Mar 30, 2006)

Somehow I feel a little dirty talking about this...

Some years ago a friend came back from Mexico with some" real Cubans" he wanted to share with me. He showed up with double banded "esplendidos" that besides a fake Cohiba band had a secondary" Habanos 2000" band. I gently explained that these couldn't possibly be real.

He was so excited and so sure that they were still great that I agreed to smoke one with him.

Two puffs and alarms went off that something was terribly wrong.

I put the cigar down and said I couldn't smoke it.

He allowed me to dissect it, and it was full of chunks. Not leaves, but chunks. Never seen anything like it.

I'm glad that someone had some good fakes, but the knowledge that I smoked chunks haunts me still.


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## CeeGar (Feb 19, 2007)

chunks? :r :r no telling where those chunks had been!! ewwww


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## fivespdcat (Nov 16, 2010)

A few years back I had some fake Esplendidos and they too were pretty good. Not great, but not trash either. I knew they were fakes when I bought them, but handed them out to people that wouldn't know any better. They got a lot of joy out of them, so in the end it was definitely worth it. Now I have not smoked a authentic one, but the fakes served their purpose!


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## smelvis (Sep 7, 2009)

Okay I have since changed my mind all the chunks and puking well I can be a follower when needed


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## StogieJim (Sep 18, 2010)

Chunks? Please elaborate...


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## bpegler (Mar 30, 2006)

StogieJim said:


> Chunks? Please elaborate...


Like a wad of something, maybe tobacco, maybe not. Not short leaf filler, but little semi hard gobs.

I haven't smoked chunks before, so they're a little hard to describe.

(Okay, maybe I smoked chunks before, but it was in the 70s after a buddy got back front Lebanon, and that's a whole different forum, I'm sure!).


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## Barefoot (Jun 11, 2010)

It does make one wonder though. I understand the profit potential in producing fake Cohibas and other high end smokes but there are plenty of CCs that sell around the $5 each range.
Perhaps the less expensive smokes are less susceptible to forgery?


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